This is the second year the Downtown Taunton Business Improvement District (BID) has seen to it that downtown is adorned with flowers in hanging planters.

The number of baskets for this year’s spring-through-fall beautification program has nearly doubled, said BID manager Teri Bernert, who is also director of Downtown Taunton Foundation, an affiliated non-profit 501(c)(3).

The 47 baskets are suspended from antique lampposts belonging to the city’s electric company, Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant. Bernert said TMLP workers hung the baskets during the latter part of May.

A business improvement district is a non-profit 501(c)(6) that exists to improve the condition of downtown areas.

BID members are property owners who pool a small percentage of their buildings’ assessed value into a fund that pays for cleaning, sweeping and general maintenance.

Taunton’s BID, including Bernert, has a part-time staff of three, plus a summer intern.

Taunton’s BID is unique by virtue of its affiliated, although independent, Downtown Taunton Foundation (DTF). The DTF has staged a number of public events, including arts shows and tours of restaurants and taverns.

Bernert said this year’s flower basket campaign came in at just under $3,000 and was paid for with BID funds. The main cost difference this year, she said, was $2,000 spent on metal brackets to secure baskets to the poles.

Last year’s tropical storm Irene demolished the planters, bringing the display season to a premature close in August.

“It’s a learning experience,” Bernert said.

She also said this year’s crop of flowers and vines stand a better chance of survival because of a sturdier mixture — including million bells (flowers), petunias, potato vines and coleus.

Bernert credits the owners of Mill River Garden Center on Ingell Street for their recommendations. And she’s particularly grateful for their volunteering greenhouse space, February through April, to allow the flowers to take root and grow.

Bernert also said she received valuable horticulture advice from Yianni Smiliotopoulos, owner of downtown’s Rainforest Garden Florist and Gifts.

Taunton BID maintenance man Andrew Jennings, who came on board six months ago, has been ensuring the healthy condition of the flowers.

Bernert said it’s not unusual to see Jennings, who also works full-time for First Taunton Group, watering the baskets as early as 2 a.m.

Jennings, she said, does so by means of a pressurized wand drawing water from a 200-gallon tank on a utility truck.

The BID, she said, bought the used vehicle from its board vice president Jay Dorsey, whose plumbing and HVAC company is located in the city.

Bernert said Jennings fills the tank with a water source located on Taunton Green. She said Parks and Recreation director Marilyn Greene granted her permission for access.

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Taunton’s community and economic development director Kevin Shea said he considers the BID’s flower-basket campaign to be “one part of an overall strategy” to promote and stimulate economic development downtown.

Shea cited the federally financed, sidewalk-replacement project currently underway on Broadway and in front of the post office and Superior Court as positive signs for the future.

He also says the now completed “riverwalk” park adjacent Spring Street adds to a general sense of improvement downtown in terms of physical appearance and aesthetics.

The BID also this past year, with federal grant money, bought a vacant foreclosed house at 8 Spring St. The house has since been completely renovated and was recently sold for $221,000, Bernert said.